I know hydroquinone is a taboo ingredient, but it works! And combining it with vitamin C is even better for brightening, plus it has glycolic acid high on the list as well, for exfoliation. I've used a whole travel size, and I'm 3/4 finished with the full size. I won't repurchase this, though, because it is expensive. I can find products with all those ingredients (maybe not combined) for a much better price! I have some freckles, which I like, but I also have some hyperpigmentation on my upper lip, which I despise. I concentrate my use of this product on my upper lip and chin area, and over the course of a few months, I noticed I didn't need as much concealer on my upper lip! The downside of hydroquinone is that you can get rebound pigmentation when you stop using it. I hope that using alpha arbutin and vitamin C together will combat this once I've finished the Murad.

I had acne scars and some sun damage and (despite the unpleasant smell and extreme tingle upon application) this stuff worked remarkably well to reduce pigmentation! An extra perk was it worked to control my acne because it has glycolic acid. My skin looked awesome with makeup and I didn’t have to cake it on the way I did before. For reference, I have combo skin leaning more towards oily.

The reason this lost a star was because it has a controversial ingredient known as hydroquinone so they don’t recommend long term use. In fact, anything over 1% is banned by the EU. If it wasn’t for that, I would have kept using this after the first bottle. Once I stopped the sun damage pigmentation came back after a few months, which was disappointing (but the discoloration from post acne is gone for good - woo!). My skin also went back to its normal self so I started to break out again.

I really do love this product because I saw awesome results! I just wish I wasn’t torn about using it year round. I get married in September so I’m really considering picking up another bottle if my new skincare routine doesn’t start working.

I'm a former Obagi Clear Rx customer and this lightening serum is one I would highly recommend because the results are remarkably similar. Four weeks ago I added this to my nightly regimen and it has done more to even out my skin tone than Obagi Clear, and it also brightens my skin because it's a glycolic acid treatment. As a result, my skin tone is *clearly* more even and has improved radiance. I seriously look like I had a chemical peel for how much more even my skin tone became. Of course, use a strong sunscreen daily to protect hyperpigmentation because treated skin needs sunscreen to help keep lightened areas stay lightened.

Important tip: The directions say to apply a moisturizer afterward. DO NOT DO THIS because it will raise the serum's pH (weakening the glycolic acid) and dilute the hydroquinone. To get the most out of this serum, put nothing on top of it for at least an hour. After an hour, the serum has done all it's going to do and you can continue your normal night-time regimen of serums, creams, oils, whatever. I rinse the Murad off because I prefer Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair as my serum and want nothing underneath to prevent penetration.

This product promises rapid age spot lightening and it absolutely delivers it! If you have melasma you will love this product. Tingles and burns very slightly for a few moments after applying but you get used to it. This product significantly reduced a small melasma spot on top of my cheek in less than a week. I expect it will erase it in a few more weeks of use but even if it doesn't I am very satisfied.

You get a ton of product for your money which I may have a hard time using up completely. My only gripe is it should be packaged in an amber bottle to keep the ingredients stable but that issue is resolved for me since I just keep it in its original packaging.

I am on my second bottle of this serum, it is part of my evening routine. I was a sun addict in my teens and early twenties. Even though I have long stopped this practice and use broad spectrum sunscreen, I have issues with hyper-pigmentation. This and a vitamin C serum in the morning, do the trick with better consistency and less irritation than any prescription or OTC product that I have used. Very pleased to have found this!

After years of being reluctant to buy this product, I finally settled to try it out with the travel size (it is a quarter of the full size, for a quarter of the price, $15 USD for 7.5ml/0.25floz).I have melasma on my cheeks, on top of my eyebrows and very light on my upper lip; I know that some of it is dermal (deep), so I didn’t get my hopes up. So after using the product for 8 weeks (that is how long it lasted), I have notices that my melasma had diminished quite a bit, and the spot that haven’t are lighter than what they were and no new spot have appeared.I really didn’t expect to have all my spot erased in a week (I personally did not notice anything until the 3 week), like I said some of them are too deep, so the fact that they are at least lighter for me it is a victory. This product might actually be great for people with epidermal pigmentation, but for dermal don’t expect to have them erased.Would I buy it again, I am already on my second travel size. Didn’t buy the full size because my dermatologist recommended using Hydroquinone for no more than 4 months at a time, so 2 travel size bottler work great.Another plus, the bottler both the full and travel size come with a pump, and no smell to the product, at least not one that I could distinguish.

This product did absolutely nothing for my skin. For reference, I have dry skin with hormonal acne on my chin. Because of this, I have a lot of PIH. I get hyperplastic scars so it takes slightly longer than normal for my PIH to go away. This made no difference whatsoever- I can't say it made it worse, but after using this for 1 month I had spots that were exactly the same as when I started using it. This also caused a bit of flushing and irritation toward my last week of use, but ymmv.

Another big issue with this product- it comes in a clear bottle. Who designed this? Both Hydroquinone and Ascorbic Acid (Vit. C), the most beneficial active ingredients, are light sensitive. I only had the small jar of this so they didn't have time to go bad, but these ingredients are very light sensitive and will become ineffective quickly. At this kind of cost, you would expect the packaging to at least attempt to preserve the product inside.

Don't waste your money on this. There are much cheaper options that are properly packaged and are probably more effective.

I have been dealing with acne for last 4 years on one side of my face and that whole check was like a huge patch of blemish . I could not go without foundation as its so pigmented. I used this and just in days I noticed and my family noticed how light it had got. I have only been using it once every night as a spot treatment but reading other reviews I will start putting it all over and update with the review

I have noticeable over a decade old sun spots on the top of my cheeks and an acne scarred right cheek hollow. I've been using a deluxe sample of this on those areas for three to four months and have noticed a slight lightening of my older sun spots. Granted I was only able to discern the lightening results after closely scrutinizing older photographs of me, so this isn't something I'm really excited about. I guess I am pleased that I can more easily conceal the spots with moderate coverage foundation these days . Also, I had been haphazardly applying this serum on the top of my cheeks, so it actually lightened a small area unblemished by sun spots, so I guess it is effective at lightening to some degree.

As for my dark acne scar (caused by dirty Razr cell phone key pad in college), I don't think this serum did too much, but again, this is a rather old scar (that does flare up with blackheads and acne every so often).

I'm curious as to why Murad packaged this in a transparent pump bottle. I've noticed the once clear serum gradually darken into a light orangey brown color - not sure if this could be remedied by packaging the product in a opaque container? Same thing happened with the Murad Post-Acne Spot Lightening Gel sample I received awhile ago. I gave that one to my mother to try on her sun spots and it actually eroded away the top layer of her skin after a week's use.

I would not repurchase, unless I'm suddenly afflicted with a number of new sun spots (which shouldn't happen now that I'm better with SPF) but it was nice to try.